It’s All Right Out of Basketball’s Smithsonian

Cal State Northridge basketball coaches got a chuckle out of a recent Sports Illustrated article on Kansas Coach Roy Williams.

Included in the story to show Williams’ meticulous attention to detail was one of the Jayhawks’

practice plans.

It looked almost exactly like Northridge’s, from the “thought for the day” to the terminology to the minute-by-minute breakdown.

“They’re stealing our stuff,” Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell joked.

Actually, it’s an example of the broad impact of North Carolina Coach Dean Smith, who influenced Williams when he was a Tar Heel assistant under Smith. Then Jerry Green absorbed the ideas when he was a Kansas assistant under Williams.

Everything filtered down to Braswell when he was an assistant under Green at Oregon.

Stepping to plate: The Cal State Northridge basketball banquet will be held Monday at the University Club, on campus near the corner of Zelzah and Nordhoff.

A reception begins at 6:30 p.m., with dinner at 7. Dinner is $25 a plate. Information: 818-677-3208.

Going soft: Cal State Northridge is falling fast in the USA Today/National Coaches’ Top 25 softball poll.

The Matadors, who have lost five of six games, have dropped to No. 21 this week after starting the season at No. 5 in a FastPitch World Magazine preseason poll.

Above average: After three mediocre seasons, Pepperdine senior outfielder Mark Lopez is finally approaching the potential that has had scouts watching him closely since he graduated from Chatsworth High in 1993.

Lopez, a left-handed batter who runs and throws well, is hitting .289 with two home runs and 14 runs batted in. In 93 games over the previous three seasons, Lopez hit .228, including .196 last season.

What a relief: Randy Wolf’s save against USC on Tuesday was his first at Pepperdine. Wolf, a junior All-American, has made only one other relief appearance for the Waves--as a freshman.

Wolf was a reliever for Team USA the past two summers.